Chasing the Wolf

by Nathan Singer

When a young artist and the woman he loves find themselves imprisoned within a moment in time between present day New York and Mississippi 1938, they attempt to make sense of a world in which they can’t seem to fit and find their place in the “center of the Universe.” But there are stones in their pass way, and hellhounds on their trail. At times both bleak and redemptive - much like the Blues itself - Chasing the Wolf is a surprisingly tender look into the madness of love, the madness of hate, and the dark secrets that lie along the banks of the muddy Mississippi.

Genres: Science Fiction

172 pages, Hardcover

First published February 25, 2006

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it. What a strange, fascinating story. It took me a while to warm up to the style and be able to follow the myriad times, perspectives, and characters that were in play. I'm still wondering how much I really missed. There was more depth (I think?) than I realized at first. And I was impressed to realize that the characters (many of them) were real people! And the historical bits too. I can't say that it's completely a style I love, but I did enjoy it and am intrigued, to say the least. Nice and short, too.

[Andrew Metadrouid · Rating 4 out of 5]

A powerful book on many levels by Mr. Singer--moving, trippy, sad, tough, vulnerable...it even has some very humorous passages and an intriguingly freaky and deftly handled sci-fi time shift element. An extremely well-written page turner; highly recommended. Especially in combination with the story of its dedication packs quite the emotional wallop.

[Jann Barber · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't think I could begin to describe this book, so I am cheating and using the Publisher's Review from Amazon. It was confusing, but not confusing. It was character driven and referenced blues artists I don't know, since I'm not a huge blues fan. I will definitely be looking them up now, as I am intrigued. I felt the transmogrification, if you will, of Eli was well done.

Here's the review I copied:

With its interracial romance and time-traveling plot, Singer's latest (after A Prayer for Dawn) bears a superficial resemblance to Octavia E. Butler's Kindred. But this lighter novel, a blend of romance, historical fiction, action and sci-fi, sends a white man back in time and reflects his youthful, colloquial voice. Told from alternating points of view, the novel opens with the story of Eli Cooper, a 27-year-old painter living in New York City in 2001, who finds himself, immediately after the death of his African-American wife, Jessie, stranded in Mississippi in 1938. He works baling hay with a "crew of Black folks," all the while charting his observations in a journal (and paying homage to various delta blues musicians). But the appearance of Ella, who looks remarkably like Jessie, further complicates matters. She, too, keeps a diary in which she confides an uncomfortable attraction to the new stranger in town. This obstacle-ridden love story takes an unexpected turn with the introduction of Jerome Kinnae, a "time walker" who holds the key to reuniting Eli and Ella in the present. Though the novel never feels very harrowing despite the dangers the couple face, Singer's freewheeling prose style moves the story at a brisk pace. (Feb.)
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[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful, brutal, complex book, in turns tear-jerking and infuriating. I had the privilege to have read the story in several forms before Nathan completed and published the novel, and every iteration got better and better, culminating in this amazing volume. The core idea of a love that transcends race, culture and even time itself is beautiful, and the set-pieces and science fiction angle accentuate a socially, politically and emotionally important piece.

Singer's prose is, as always, brash, exciting and visceral, poetically beautiful in its ugliness in the way that Burroughs could only achieve in his best moments. As a satirist and purveyor of black humor, Singer ranks directly aside Chuck Palahniuk in our generation, and Vonnegut and Burroughs in the previous. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

[Alisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got sucked in from the first paragraph. The language, the darkness, the weird. The author weaves madness and music and history and magic together in a way that is poetry, suspense and theatre combined -- and where the reader wants desperately for the main characters to win. If we could change the passage of our own time, what Hell would that release?